...I disagree.

You, Greenman and especially Mondo all claim that aggressive moderating is key to keeping a board civil and on topic. The truth is that aggressive moderation simply reduces the board to a few like minded individuals. New people who test the waters and find the board over moderated will leave. Uber left citing unfair and overzealous moderation. Of course if the environment becomes too uncivil the same thing can happen. We don't see much of Trudy, Z, and Donk anymore.

So, in all things balance. Mods have to evaluate the good and the bad and leave a lot of wiggle room. More free expression is better than more moderation.

Any board will have its good days and bad, its good participants and its bad ones. The tone of the board will tend to ebb and flow. And that's actually healthy. A vibrant board will act like that and attract participants. Some days the mods have to put their foot down. Other days the inmates will run the asylum. But overall it takes moderation and not iron fisted adherence to the rules and regs that help to make a board a good one.

Ultimately, it is up to we participants to exercise a bit of self discipline and hold ourselves to these lofty standards I keep reading about. Remember:

The character of any board is determined by the posters themselves.